SPLIT LIPS, BLOODY NOSES, A CHILDREN'S DAY AT GULLIVERS KINGDOM! (Gulliver's Kingdom)

Member Name: indigojade

Product:	Gulliver's Kingdom
Date:	15/07/02 (5919 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: younger children over 90cm can ride all the rides

Disadvantages: some very dangerous areas, , maintenance standards appear low

Set in the beautiful and scenic location of Matlock Bath, Derbyshire is perhaps a little known world, a world of fun, frolics, and adventures, that place is Gulliver's Kingdom - a children's adventure park. I have never seen Gulliver's Kingdom advertised on television, radio or in newspapers and only know about it as I used to live in and around Matlock for a number of years. So when James came along I thought it would an ideal place to visit with him, as he grew older, preparing him for the more boisterous rides at Theme parks such as Alton Towers.

If you plan on going to Gulliver's Kingdom make sure you wear trainers or other sensible shoes - the hills are a killer on the feet and if you are unfit. The scenery is however worth it!

OPENING TIMES

The park is open March to December opening between 10 -10.30 am and closing 5 -5.30 PM, check on their website for more details www.gulliversfun.co.uk.

ADMISSION PRICES

Adults and children over 90cm £6.80 per person
Children under 90cm FREE
Senior Citizens £5.80 per person
Parties of 20 or more PAYING people £5.30 per person

CAR PARKING

As you turn off the main road upto the park the first thing that strikes you is the hill - more of a mountain that a hill some people might say - but having lived there, I guess I am used to it. There was some confusion when we arrived; we initially drove right up to the reception area - following the signs to the car park. There we were told we would have to park back down at the bottom of the hill. Off we set down the narrow twisty road, with lovely vertical drops on either side, parked in the bay at the bottom of the hill, and waited, as we were a few minutes early. Lo and behold a park attendant came trotting down to us and told us we couldn't park where we were as it was reserved for coaches. We explained we had been told to park there - but he insisted we moved. Off we set up the twisty turny
road once again - we had to wait quite a while for the top car park to be unlocked, but once there, we found ample parking space - well we would we were one of the first to arrive! I would say that there isn't really that much space for car parking, so best to get there early - the park opens at 10am, to be assured of benefiting from the free parking the park provides. We left at 2pm and 'car park' full signs were posted at the entrance.

Once parked you then enter the park and pay your admission price.


The park is spilt into sections:

LILLIPUT LAND featuring Lilliput land castle, Crazy Barrel Ride, Gulliver's Travels ride, Jumping Star, Hard luck bear jamboree, Rio Grande Train Ride, Stepping Stones, Millennium Maze, Giant Chess, Shops, Amazing Journeys of Gulliver and the Tikki Bird Show.

The majority of the rides in this section went down very well with James and Thomas, both aged three. The rides were fast enough for them, but not too boisterous - the fastest I think was the Crazy Barrel Ride - sort of like a waltzer, but one you control with a steering wheel in the car.

The downfall with this section was the Amazing Journeys of Gulliver - appalling. We waited for 15 minutes outside the door, where it asks you to wait. After this period several other people and we gave up and started to walk back out again. The door then opened and an attendant looked out - then shut the door again. A few seconds later she opened the door and asked rather brusquely - 'are you coming on or what?'. When I pointed out there was no indication that the ride was working, she merely claimed 'well it is'. The ride itself was rather uninspiring - you are led into a very small dimly lit room, where you suddenly hear a voice talking to you and a small lit scene in the wall. The voice is very muffled and difficult to hear for an adult, never mind a child. This lasts for about 5 minutes and begins the story o
f Gulliver's travels. You are then led into another larger room - no word from the attendant at all, she stands there. In the next room you are regaled with takes of Gulliver by some rather hideous figures high up on the wall. This lasts for quite a while and it is difficult to concentrate whilst craning your neck to see the figures, that is from an adults point of view - imagine if you're a child. As you can imagine my 3-year-old son was soon asking if we could go, as were other children. We were then led to the main 'ride', which is platform with seats on; you sit down and have to put on a seat belt. A 'movie' is then shown on the screen and the platform on which you sit, tilts and rumbles, and rocks, as though you are flying. This caused great excitement with the kids, and if you let yourself get into it, it is pretty good for adults too. The beginning part of this 'ride' is boring - but if you can get through it, the actual ride itself was quite fun.




FANTASY TERRACE
Diggers, Toy Shop, Flight of Fantasy, Balloons Ferris wheel, Adventure golf




Dodgems these were all in good condition and all in working order, seat belts are provided, but no enforcement about wearing them. The attendant did explain the one way system - but did nothing to enforce the rule about no head on crashing. One imbecile decided to ram everyone head on - leaving several small children in tears.

Chair Lift - this looked fun and our children were dying to go on it - but the rules state that it is a one way only trip - should you want to go back up/down again you have to get off and re queue. I can understand the logic of this, as you can get on and off the chair lift at the top and bottom - so its great if you don't want to walk up the hills. My complaint is that there is no where secure to leave your pushchairs whilst you ride the chair lift.

Playport - this would be superb but for the lig
hting. It is a soft play area, where children can run and jump and burn off some energy in an enclosed area, whilst the parents can take a breather on the benches and watch the children. The lighting in this area was very dim indeed - which deterred our children from venturing too far inside.



BOURBON STREET.
Chair lift, Lazy River ride, Veteran cars

Horses carousel this was a firm favourite with both adults and parents, there is an upper level of horses that is reserved for children only - older ones though as I wouldn't feel too happy about small children being up there on their own.
Ball crawl - this is basically a huge ball pool, however it was in a quite disgusting mess, even early in the morning. There was evidence of melted ice cream, and the bottom of the ball pool was wet - with what I have no idea but both children had wet socks when they came out. Definitely in need of a good clean out!

Under 5's play area this was a very dimly lit area indeed, with limited facilities - a small ball pool, and a seesaw and a large connect 4-type game to play. What concerned me most about this area was many parents seemed to leave their children here whilst they browsed in the gift shop. As the area is situated so close to the entrance, I would have thought the parents would have more sense!

Barrel play area - this looked a tremendous amount of fun for small big 'uns, with barrels used to climb through and bridges and slides. The down side was the danger factor. The whole area was supposed to be covered with bark chippings - unfortunately they were sadly lacking in most important areas, under the slides. Some of the decorative metal banding on the barrels was severely rusty and in parts coming away. I managed to sustain a 3-inch cut on my shin from one of these barrels. Another feature of concern in this area was the thatching on the roofs of the barrels. The thatch was covered with chicken wire to stop it fa
lling apart I assume. This was coming down in places, and being at head and eye height very dangerous indeed. Whilst we were there, two children caught parts of their faces on this wire causing marked scratches - this could have been so much worse.

Pirate ship - this was another firm favourite with our children and all went swimmingly until we went round again and Thomas managed to fall off the surrounding decking into an area supposed to be covered with bark chippings. Instead of bark chippings, he fell headlong into disgusting black soup of mud and rotted bark.



PALAIS ROYALE AREA
Honey swing, Cycle monorail, Ladybird ride, Bouncy bed, Talking apple, Singing orange, Chair o plane, Pedal go karts, Gold panning £1.25, Food area

Billy bobs BI planes - This was a superb ride, 4 BI plane type carriages which seat 4 people (2 adult, 2 children) in which you are securely fastened in. The ride then turns slowly up a large pole. At the top you can see the most fantastic views of Matlock Bath and over Gulliver's kingdom. NOT for those afraid of heights.

Log roller coaster - another complaint I am afraid, this ride was in a gross state of disrepair - with obvious rotting supporting timbers of the canopy, which had I seen this before embarking on the ride, we would have got off immediately. The ride itself is great and the children loved it - until it stopped. At the end of the ride the brakes are slammed on hard! A little shocking to anyone - but to a small child made even more so by the slamming of your face into the safety bar, even though this is padded somewhat - it still has the ability to split small lips against teeth. A few seconds after the first stop - it happens again, the result? Several screaming children, a few with bloody mouths and some with bloody noses. I do feel there should be some warning about this before you get on the ride, and a rethink about how the safety bars are fitted.


WESTERN WO
RLD
Hillbilly shooting gallery, Sheriff office, Wild West saloon



Adventure fort - this was a great area, apart from the fact we started our day here and the slides were wet with dew. Would it be too much trouble for the attendants to perhaps wipe all slides down at the start of the day? Happily it was a sunny day so the children's clothes soon dried. Again here more bark chippings need to be added in important areas such as the bottom of slides.


LITTLE SWITZERLAND

The royal cave experience, Dancing waters show Family fun show

Animal farm - this is not a farm with real animals as we expected, but was interesting none the less. A human sized figure is seated in the room, with a cacophony of animals. There are large push buttons at child height and when pushed the person and the animals all sing Old Macdonald. Huge fun for little people.



Log flume - On the whole a good ride and in reasonable order, however much superficial work is needed in this area. Cutting back of all the overgrown weeds and brambles is required. On four occasions there were both nettles and brambles that encroached into the car whilst it was in motion - resulting in nasty nettle rash on arms that were safely in the car.

Mine train ride and tour a rather rickety looking ride, the voice over was very muffled and unable to hear and understand in parts. Inside the mine was interesting, more lighting required to be seen to full effect. Better lighting required at the exits, with fluorescent paint used perhaps on the steps



FOOD AREAS, these are plentiful with a fairly good menu and reasonably priced. We chose to take our own food and found plenty of seating. All food areas were in good clean condition.

TOILETS - these appeared to be plentiful and generally clean. However at 10am in the morning, there was no toilet paper in any of the cubicles, something we found that was common to all the to
ilets throughout the day. Just as well we all carry tissues for just such eventualities.


DISABLED ACCESS - This is not a place for wheelchair users in my opinion, the hills make it very hard going indeed and most of the rides do not cater for disabled people.


First Aid facilities - none found. Although most parents tend to carry plasters, antiseptic and the like, a first aid post would be a good addition to the park.


STORAGE FACILITES - there are lockers available to put picnics into, so you don't have to cart everything around with you. These are situated at Bourbon Street, near the main entrance. A £1 deposit is taken from you each and every time you open/close the locker - making repeated visits expensive. Alternatively you can get a 'pass out' after 1pm, so you can leave your picnic in the car.

Queuing times - we went on a Friday, during term time. There were quite a few coaches there, and as I said before the car parks were full when we left at 2pm. Having said that queuing times were minimal or non-existent - we managed to stay on the log flume a good few times, and the pirate ship without getting off and on again.

GIFT SHOPS

There are several of these on the site all containing pretty much the same things, wrist bands, pencils, purses with names on, toys which will break before the day is out and so on. There are some lovely pottery items however; none of which will break the bank! There are icecreams and drinks on sale in some of the gift shops - I was amazed that a can of Pepsi was only 60 pence -expecting to pay at least £1.

STAFF - The staff were mainly younger people 16 - 20, most of them were very uncommunicative and quite rude at times. One young girl told me she 'hated bloody children' one has to ask the question why does she work there then. The more mature staff were superb, making friendly converstion with both parents and children.

The park i
s mainly aimed at children from 3 - 12 years of age in my estimation, although they claim that 'At Gulliver's we aim to provide the best possible day out for families with children between the age of 2 - 13 years, and as such all the rides and attractions are aimed to cater for their specific needs.'


In my opinion there was very little for 2 year olds to do here, unless they are over 90cm and feel that at age 13 children today are big enough and bold enough to encounter more exciting rides than the ones offered at Gulliver's kingdom.

All in all James and Thomas did enjoy themselves and loved the majority of the rides on offer. However the cut leg, nettle rash, bramble scratches and split lip and bloody nose, marred the day for my friend and myself. Not to mention being constantly on guard to make sure things were safe for our children, in a place where we were supposed to have the best possible day out!

Although the admission price is very competitive and there is lots for younger children 3- 8 to do here, but because of the problems outlined above I would NOT recommend Gulliver's Kingdom to anyone at present. There are far too many things that need addressing as far as safety is concerned.

If you still wish to visit here are a few tips:

Don't go on the log flume first unless it is a sunny day!

Take a cloth with you to wipe down wet slides/swings/seats

Take plenty of tissues/baby wipes

Take a small first aid kit with you

Take a spare change of clothing for your children

Wear sensible shoes

Start at the bottom of the park and work your way up. It is easier for children to walk downhill at the end of the day than it is up hill!

If possible try not to take a pushchair with you - it is hard work pushing them up the hills, plus you have to leave them unattended whilst on the rides.

Take the smallest bag you can with all your be
longings in it and keep with you at all times.


I hope you have a better visit than we did. I have sent a letter to Gulliver's Kingdom outlining my concerns about their park. If I get a reply I will update this opinion.

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